Category: Design Philosophy

Posted on in Design, Design Ethics, Design Philosophy, Digital Prototyping

What is the meeting point between digital prototyping and speculative approaches in relation to ethical concerns? 

As speculative design is currently facing other perspectives than Product Design, this essay seeks to identify these approaches in the context of Interaction Design, carefully studying the meeting points between speculative means and digital prototyping. In this way, as a case study for this research, the essay will draw upon the practical experiences gained throughout the formation, ideation and finalisation of the ‘Straw More’ project. In addition, this paper seeks to relate all of the findings to ethical questions, analysing to which extent these concerns are achieved or overlooked.  

As speculative design is currently facing other perspectives than Product Design, this essay seeks to identify these approaches in the context of Interaction Design, carefully studying the meeting points between speculative means and digital prototypes. In this way, the essay will draw upon not only related literature sources, but also upon the practical experiences gained throughout the formation, ideation and finalisation of the ‘Strawmore’ project. Regarded as a relevant case study for the question in place, most of the arguments will be connected to decisions and lessons gained throughout the design practice. In addition, this paper seeks to relate all of the findings to ethical questions, analysing to which extent these concerns are achieved or overlooked. When discussing ethical implications a parallel between the main case study and a supplementary speculative design project is drawn.  

According to Auger, 2010; Dunne and Raby, 2013 and Malpass 2013, speculative design is a specific form of critical design practice that has developed to focus on socio-scientific and socio-technical concerns. As an integrated approach in speculative design (Malpass, 2013), design fiction is the method used by designers in order to hypothesize and generate discussion over a wide variety of topics, using highly imaginative and conceptual approaches, most of the times on the edge of science and science fiction. Over the last few years, this method of designing has gained a high popularity amongst creatives, allowing themselves to experiment, explore and form concepts that draw a common line between art, design and science. According to Lim, Stolterman and Teneberg, 2008, a differentiation between prototypes and prototyping is highly needed in order to understand the process. In this way, prototypes define the materialisation and concretisation of design ideas, whereas prototyping represents the series of activities carried out by the designers in order to achieve these forms, physical or digital. This essay is considering only digital means of prototyping, encompassing any techniques that involve the use of software and that are realised in the virtual space.  

Design fiction represents a new opportunity for designers to create awareness and start discussion over crucial topics that have already exploit the possibilities of informational design and not only. ‘Strawmore’, as a speculative design project, engages with the globally recognised topic of single-use plastic, in particular with the usage of plastic straws that have a direct effect on marine life and subsequently on the climate change phenomenon. Rejecting the success rate, in the existing conditions, of raising awareness through informational design methods, the project explores the possibilities of speculative design as an approach to start discussion among the users of plastic straws. Thus, a new world is portrayed where the object gains extensive value and it becomes an asset in the user’s social image. The project imagines a new reality where people are actively interested in purchasing and showcasing their straw as an inseparable element in one’s daily activities. Produced from highly resistant materials such as titanium, gold, silver and even animal skin, ‘Strawmore’ manages to raise the ethical questions attached to the topic. It is even ethical to discuss such matters? Why imagine such scenarios in the first place, instead of focusing on the actual and the solution? Does it really create constructive discussion or does it only open the mind towards the negative and careless consideration? 

Design fiction presents the advantage of releasing the designer of the limitations of commercial design (Malpass, 2016) and allowing space for the imagination. However, in order to accommodate this practice into finalised products, it is highly necessary to employ prototyping techniques. In this way, digital prototyping offers a wide spectrum of visualisation opportunities for the desired topic. ‘Straw more’ applies digital methods such as 3D visualisation, photo manipulation and video production. However, it is still arguable if the same effects can be achieved only through physical prototyping, but the project represents a good example of the extent to which speculative approaches can be taken when depicted through digital techniques. Moreover, in this case study, digital prototyping brings realistic value by offering the possibility of showcasing the concept in a pragmatic way. Portrayed in the digital form of a shop where users are able to purchase their own personalised straw, the project breaks down the fictional through realistic looks and offers a gradual immersion in the imagined world of titanium and animal skin straws.  

Offering form to these design ideas employs the use of digital techniques, therefore involves the common act of prototyping carried out by designers. In a commercial scenario, these series of activities usually become iterative, observational, with the scope of producing the best version of the artefact, which at the same time encompasses the initial design decisions of function and use. Several sessions of user testing are applied in order to accommodate, as much as possible, the realistic interaction in the designed scenario. While this manifestation and concretisation of the abstract through prototyping techniques and activities still apply to speculative design, the actual functionality of it, can and will remain abstract in most of the cases as during speculative design practice the goal is not the create something functional, but to simulate the idea in its context. In this way, the release from technical implications offers an even wider space for creation.  

Therefore, considering digital prototyping as a space that brings about realism and an unrestricted space for the creation of speculative designs, the meeting point between the two becomes almost invisible, but at the same time highly logical. In this matter, ethical concerns must remain the centre of the topic. Ethics as a strongly connected aspect of every design practice, dwell mainly within the moral and creative implications of proposed projects. In the context of speculative design, the designer breaks the boundaries of these implications by formulating concepts usually around highly sensible societal or humanistic topics. ‘Dawn Chorus’ is a concept that portrays an intelligent birdfeeder that uses behaviourist training to teach local songbirds the owner’s favourite songs (Gaver, 2000). Even though, the design practice in itself looks for exploration within the possibilities of artificial intelligence, the application of this potential can raise ethical concerns. To which extent is it righteous to alter a sentient’s being way of behaving to one’s liking? To the same extent, ‘Straw more’ seeks to raise awareness within a topic by using the behavioural patterns that are actually causing the issues and it does go to larger extent by involving sensitive elements such as straws produced from animal skin. Therefore, it is considered that speculative design presents an unlimited freedom compared to other design practices, however it must not overlook the effects of visual representation and integrated elements that are highly disapproved amongst contemporary opinions. In this way, it can also be stated that this practice will always be linked to ethical criticism if not designed in the right boundaries. Considering all of the above, it is highly important for the designer to understand which are the right boundaries when designing with fiction and speculating about future probabilities. One of the main advantages of this practice is the possibility of imagining new realities and opening the mind to new probabilities and most of the concepts hold within in-built values, even though they are portrayed most of the times through reversed psychology or assigning different use to known notions.  

All in all, in the case study presented, it is easy to identify the meeting point between speculative approaches and digital prototyping and to define this space as highly unregulated by technical or usability concerns. At the same time, it is easily recognisable the permanent presence of ethical implications when working within this area. As described above, when compared to commercial design practice, a freedom of creation is determined within speculative design, characterised through elements such as highly conceptual and highly imaginative, no requirements for active functional or perfect usability and last, but not least the opportunity to provoke and start discussion over a wide range of topics. This high level of freedom that is placed in the hands of the designer, however, must at all times be questioned by the ethical concerns present in every design practice. It is almost a sensus communis that through design we help improve the environment around and the way we shape this space must not be overlooked. This essay identifies the value in challenging the viewer’s perception and way of thinking about the future, while it also identifies the need of always designing in relation to ethical concerns.  Considering all these, it feels almost natural for digital prototyping to enter the space of speculative design, the meeting point between the two concepts becoming the desire to create in new ways, not bound by past and traditional convictions. It is an approach that is forming shape as we discuss, but which will find its place in the traditional ways of designing for people. 

References 

Gaver, B. & Martin. H. (2000). Alternatives: Exploring information appliances through conceptual design proposals. CHI Letters, 2(1), 209 – 216. ACM Press.  

Malpass, M. (2016). Critical Design Practice: Theoretical perspectives and methods of engagement. Design Journal, 19(3), 473 – 489. 

Lim, Youn-kyung & Stolterman, Erik & Tenenberg, Josh. (2008). The anatomy of prototypes: Prototypes as filters, prototypes as manifestations of design ideas. ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact. 15. 

Strawmore [Scholarly project]. (2019, May 28). In Strawmore. Retrieved from https://fghadir.wixsite.com/strawmore 

Posted on in Art, Design, Design Philosophy

Speculative everything: random notes

Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming

Walter Pichler, TV Helmet (Portable Living Room), 1967. Photograph by georg Mladek.

As Fredric Jameson famously remarked, it is now easier for us to imagine the end of the world than an alternative to capitalism. Yet alternatives are exactly what we need. We need to dream new dreams for the twenty-first century as those of the twentieth century rapidly fade. But what role can design play? When people think of design, most believe it is about problem solving. Even the more expressive forms of design are about solving aesthetic problems. Faced with huge challenges such as overpopulation, water shortages, and climate change, designers feel an overpowering urge to work together to fix them, as though they can be broken down, quantified, and solved. Design’s inherent optimism leaves no alternative but it is becoming clear that many of the challenges we face today are unfixable and that the only way to overcome them is by changing our values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviour. Although essential most of the time, design’s inbuilt optimism can greatly complicate things, first, as a form of denial that the problems we face are more serious than they appear, and second, by channeling energy and resources into fiddling with the world out there rather than the ideas and attitudes inside our heads that shape the world out there. Rather than giving up altogether, though, there are other possibilities for design: one is to use design as a means of speculating how things could be—speculative design. This form of design thrives on imagination and aims to open up new perspectives on what are sometimes called wicked problems, to create spaces for discussion and debate about alternative ways of being, and to inspire and encourage people’s imaginations to flow freely. Design speculations can act as a catalyst for collectively redefining our relationship to reality.

Keywords: alternatives, dream a new dream, design as problem solving, design as a way to speculate how things could be, new perspectives, alternative ways, design speculations as a catalyst

Four different dimension of speculative design:

Probable

Plausible

Possible

Preferable

Designing for how things could be, conceptual design: “Patrick Stevenson Keating’s The Quantum Parallelograph (2011) is a public engagement prop exploring ideas about quantum physics and multiverses by finding and printing out online information from a user’s “parallel life.” It uses abstraction along with generic technical references to suggest a strange technological device. It is clearly a prop but it sets to work on the imagination very quickly.”

The first conceptual artist, Marchel Duchamp, highlights core features of a conceptual work:

10. Ideas can be works of art; they are in a chain of development that may eventually find some form. All ideas need not be made physical.

13. A work of art may be understood as a conductor from the artist’s mind to the viewer’s. But it may never reach the viewer, or it may never leave the artist’s mind.

17. All ideas are art if they are concerned with art and fall within the conventions of art.

28. once the idea of the piece is established in the artist’s mind and the final form is decided, the process is carried out blindly. There are many side effects that the artist cannot imagine. These may be used as ideas for new works.

31. If an artist uses the same form in a group of works, and changes the material, one would assume the artist’s concept involved the material.

9.The concept and idea are different. The former implies a general direction while the latter is the component. Ideas implement the concept.

Conceptual design as a form of critique:

n. The term critical design coined in the mid nineties at Computer Related Design Research Studio at the Royal College of Art

d. “critical design uses speculative design proposals to challenge narrow assumptions, preconceptions, and givens about the role products play in everyday life.”

Critical design =/ Affirmative design

testimonials of what could be offering alternatives that highlight weaknesses within existing normality involves critical thinking, being skeptical, all good critical design offers an alternative

Posted on in Design, Design Philosophy

Lecture III: Experiencing Prototyping

The last lecture on prototyping was in the area of what does it mean to experience your object and how can you use different methods in order to gain the needed insights for your final design. 

My group was given the task to discuss and experience the prototyping of a newly innovative interface that is used mainly for media purposes and that it is tangible and foldable. We chose paper in order to carry out this task and experience the different sizes. We regarded its size attribute as a valuable insight as this will carry out important design decisions. We folded an A4 paper in different sizes and we each try to use it for accessing different digital mediums: newspaper, social media, email or planning your schedule. We discovered that half of the A4 size would best fit a smooth interaction. In our testing this gave us the best experience while also being able to carry out other tasks such as carrying a cup of coffee or turning on the light. The foldable feature of our prototype was, however, the main focus in our group. We argued that such an in-built interaction must be assigned to an important step in the flow of actions such as turning on or turning off the device. Assigning this to a trivial action such as switching pages or switching accounts would transform the object itself into a high-end, difficult to use gadget that will limit the target group. The weight and thickness aspects were also tied up to valuable insights. Using our folded A4 paper outside in the wind, we discovered that a thickness of four papers glued together will offer the safe experience of not having it be affected by external elements such as the weather. Last, but not least we discussed the possible interactions that will integrate well in our object. 

It is most surely a valuable exercise and we got some hands on experience on how to work with paper as a prototype. It surely did minimise my underestimation of working with basic materials for the design of complex objects. 

Posted on in Design, Design Philosophy, Physical Prototyping

Lecture I: What do prototypes prototype?

The lecture on design philosophy regarding the working means with prototyping as a way of transforming your idea into a physical object was the first of the third lectures to follow. We discussed in depth of what it actually means to build, use materials and get valuable insights from each test. As one of the fundamental activities of a designer, it is highly needed to understand the principles behind what does a prototype implies. 

Discussing with my classmate over Valentine’s definition of a prototype, we did agree that it behaves as a teacher or a guide in your design process, it is the most valuable tool in order to concretise ideas and test them in real time. It is indeed a iterative process where failing and succeeding hold valuable lessons in order to achieve your final goal. Last, but not least we did agree that certainty is the aspect that will always miss. It is impossible to be fully confident of the first version of your prototype as this process requires that the “individual’s imaginations is tenaciously explored, tested, broken and rebuilt”. It is the moment where your confidence will be challenged and your wisdom will be your most valuable tool. 

The main knowledge behind this lessons is that we as designers must understand the situation we are designing for, the concept and the materials. As such we will be able to face the issues with lesser difficulty. 

I value book knowledge highly and I give its spot in my design practice, but throughout the talk I kept thinking that this is such a complex situation where issues that we can not yet imagine will come across and in those moments we need real life wisdom and actual prototyping practice in order to be successful. I told myself that I should not underestimate the insights from people that have worked with these methods before, but I should nevertheless exercise this as much as possible in order to create my own working method and to develop the thinking that will adjust my mind patterns in the best of ways.